1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to police batons and more particularly to such a baton which can be utilized not only as a club but also a trapping device for restraining individuals or trapping weapons.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern police batons must be designed not only to adequately subdue an assailant but also to defend against weapons such as bats and sticks. In addition, the baton also should be capable of enabling the police officer to restrain opponents in a manner which causes as little physical injury to such persons as possible. A good baton should also be as maneuverable as possible to enable the user to rapidly change its position before and during a confrontation. A good baton also should provide an adequate hand guard for the user's hand. Additionally, a good baton should be compatible with the natural defensive reactions of the user and should not require one to learn movements that do not come naturally to effect its proper use.
Various prior art batons have been designed with one or more of these objectives in mind. U.S. Pat. No. 3,385,601 issued May 28, 1968 to Black describes a billy club having a hand guard for protecting the user's hands. This club, however, has no special features for facilitating the restraint of an opponent or the trapping of an assailant's weapon. Further, no special features are incorporated into this club for enhancing the maneuverability thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,958 issued May 26, 1987 to Raitto and U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,409 issued Jan. 2, 1979 to Taylor describe police batons having cross handles which extend at right angles to the club portion of the baton, such cross handles being described as useful in restraining opponents. These cross handled batons are inefficient as trapping/restraining devices due to the right angle of the crosshandle in view of the fact that an opponent's arms and legs tend to easily slip away and disengage from this type of trapping device. The trapping/restraining member of the present invention forms an acute angle with the club portion of the baton thereby providing a secure area from which the opponent's body parts cannot readily escape.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,932 issued Nov. 3, 1987 to Kubota also describes a side handle baton. In the Kubota device, a short shaft has been added to the free end of the cross handle for the purpose of improving the trapping/restraining capabilities of a standard cross handle baton. While this short shaft on the free end of the cross handle does improve the trapping ability of Kubota, this device lacks the higher level of effectiveness and safety of the present invention. The short shaft of Kubota is much more likely to gouge the flesh of an opponent thereby causing an unintended injury. The acute angle of the trapping member of the present invention allows more room for error on the part of the user. When pressure is applied to an appendage with the trapping member of the present invention, in view of the smoothness and the acute angle of this member, the appendage slides naturally into the secure "V" shaped area with minimum chance of error or injury.
The device of the Kubota patent as well as other cross handle batons of the prior art have other limitations in their use. With the device of the present invention, an unlimited number of holds and restraints can be performed. All such restraints are accomplished while gripping the device of the present invention in the primary grip area located within the protected hand guard. The user of the baton of the present invention does not have to remove his or her hand from the primary grip area and place it on the extended end of the baton to make best use of the trapping features In many situations, the releasing and regripping of a baton in order to perform a restraining/trapping movement is both dangerous and inefficient. The device of the present invention thus provides distinct advantages over batons of the prior art.
The baton of the present invention provides a combination of features neither taught nor suggested in the prior art including 1. a side guard for protecting the user's hand which has a small rotatable bushing attached thereto for facilitating maneuverability of the baton; 2. a hand guard for protecting the user's hand, the front portion of which also functions as a gripping area; and 3. a trapping member which is angulated towards the club portion of the baton to facilitate restraining parts of an opponent's body while causing as little injury as possible.